Sidamo Province (

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: ሲዳሞ) was a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the southern part of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, with its capital city at Irgalem, and after 1978 at Awasa. It was named after an ethnic group native to southern Ethiopia, called the Sidama, who are located in the south-central part of the country. According to the old political division, Sidamo was bordered on the west by Gamu-Gofa, on the north by

Shewa Shewa (; ; Somali: Shawa; , ), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at it ...

, on the north and east by

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, a small portion on the southeast by

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, and on the south by

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

History

With its extensive

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plantations, Sidamo was a province with abundant revenues and assigned to its rule were nobles loyal to the Emperor, such as Dejazmach Balcha Safo, who governed it at different times before the Italian occupation. Its largest settlement was Hawassa (Awasa). Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italy in 1942, the provinces of Borana and Welayta, created from conquered states of that name, were merged into Sidamo. Sidamo was the scene of a revolt of the Gedeo people in 1960 who objected to a reorganization of the taxation system, which they believed was oppressive. The revolt was brutally suppressed; as Bahru Zewde notes, "Armed mostly with spears and swords, the peasants confronted a well-equipped enemy composed of land-lords and government troops." The Gedeo rebels were crushed in several engagements, and an arbitration commission headed by ''Afa Negus'' Eshate Gada not only found for land lords, but fined the elders of the Gedeo who had led the revolt.Bahru Zewde, ''A History'', p. 218. Since the adoption of the

1995 Constitution of Ethiopia The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (), also known as the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, is the supreme law of Ethiopia. The constitution came into force on 21 August 1995 after it was drawn up by the Constituent Asse ...

, Sidamo has been divided amongst the Southern Peoples Region which took its capital; the remainder contributing to the larger, more central,

Oromia region Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. Under Article 49 of 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Constitution, the capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa, also called Finfinne. The ...

and to the

Somali Region The Somali Region (, , ), also known as Soomaali Galbeed () and officially the Somali Regional State, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in eastern Ethiopia. It is the largest region of Ethiopia. The state borders the Ethiopian regions ...

as to a very small percentage.

Notes

{{coord, 5, 00, N, 39, 00, E, display=title, region:ET_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki Provinces of Ethiopia States and territories disestablished in 1995

History

See also

Notes